Mehmed Talaat Pasha (; ; 1874 – 15 March 1921), commonly known as
Talaat Pasha, was one of the triumvirate known as the
Three Pashas that
de facto ruled the
Ottoman Empire during the
First World War. His career in Ottoman politics began by becoming Deputy for
Edirne in 1908, then Minister of the Interior and
Minister of Finance, and finally
Grand Vizier (equivalent to Prime Minister) in 1917. Acting as the Minister of Interior, Talaat Pasha on 24 April 1915 the
arrest and deportation of Armenian intellectuals in Constantinople, most of them being ultimately murdered, and on 30 May 1915 requested the
Tehcir Law (Temporary Deportation Law); these events initiated the
Armenian Genocide. He is widely considered the main perpetrator of the Genocide. He was one of the leaders of les Jeunes Turcs movement and the first Turkish Grand Master of the Freemasonry, according to the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Turkey.